Olivo e Pasquale (Olivo and Pasquale) is a melodramma giocoso, a romantic comedy opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Jacopo Ferretti wrote the Italian libretto after Antonio Simeone Sografi's play.

Performance history

It premiered on 7 January 1827 at the Teatro Valle, Rome. Donizetti made some revisions in a subsequent production in Naples for the Teatro Nuovo in September 1827, the most important of which was changing Camillo to a tenor.

Roles

Synopsis

Olivo and Pasquale are two brothers, both merchants from Lisbon: the first is hot-blooded and brutal, the other is sweet and shy. Olivo's daughter, Isabella, loves a young apprentice, Camillo, but her father wants her to marry a wealthy merchant from Cadiz, Le Bross. Isabella tells Le Bross that she loves another. At first he is led to believe that it is Columella, an old conceited and ridiculous man, but shortly after he understands that it is Camillo. Olivo, realizing that his daughter dares to oppose his will, is furious and Le Bross, shocked by his disproportionate reaction, becomes Isabella and Camillo's ally and promises to help them get married. The lovers threaten to commit suicide at five o'clock if Olivo doesn't agree to let the marriage take place, but he does not believe them and he refuses to be blackmailed. However, at five o'clock, shots of a firearm ring out: Pasquale faints and Olivo says that now he would have preferred Isabella to be Camillo's wife rather than be dead. The threat of suicide was not true, and the young couple appears at the door; Olivo embraces and blesses their union.

Recordings